QWERTY

Explore keyboard basics as you start learning how to type.

Help for Staff

Being familiar with the keyboard will help a user when they start typing. In this activity, members will learn about the QWERTY keyboard, the use of the HOME ROW and other tips to help them type more efficiently. Be prepared to run this activity frequently to help members develop their skills. Having trouble getting started for QWERTY?

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Computer

WiFiInternet

WhiteBoard

WritingSoftware

STEP 1

TIME: 5 MINUTES

Talk QWERTY

Learn how to use the QWERTY keyboard, which will prepare you to learn to type.

Look at your keyboard and try to make up words using letters across a row. What words do you come up with? Open a Google document and type these words into it.

You may come up with words like: QWERTY, UIOP, ASDF, ZXCV or any other combination of letters.

Try to remember these words. Remembering these words will help you type more quickly.

Which of your words do you think are the best?

Try to read these words aloud to your neighbor. It won't be easy, but it'll be fun, and it will help you remember where the letters are on keyboard.

Tell your members to look at their keyboards and make combinations of words using the keys in a row.

Make sure that your members are focused on their computers. If they’re sharing or paired up in groups, make sure that everyone can see the keyboard or that members have a system for taking turns.

Tip: You could also project an image of a keyboard onto a screen so that your members are all looking at the same keyboard together.

STEP 2

TIME: 5 MINUTES

The Home Row

Keyboards have little raised marks on the F and J keys so you’ll know where to place your fingers while you are typing without looking down at the keyboard.

The F and J keys live on HOME ROW. These keys act as anchors for your fingers. What do anchors do? The hold the ship (in other words, your fingers) in place.

The HOME ROW is the first thing you should learn on a keyboard. It contains important letters, like ASDF and GHJKL. Try to remember this letter sequence by saying these letter sequences as words.

Ask members to practice putting their fingers on F and J so they can feel the raised markers on the keys.

Make sure that your members are focused on their computers. If they’re sharing or paired up in groups, see if everyone has a view of the keyboard or that members have a system for taking turns.

Tips:

If your members have different styles of keyboards, the Home Row indicators might be slightly different.

On-screen keyboards might not have these indicators. Ask your members for reasons why that might be.

If you already know some basics, check out the typing tutorial Mavis Beacon or look at some of the other typing game activities in this pathway.

Try to practice typing using these tutorials for at least 20 minutes.

STEP 4

TIME: 5-10 MINUTES

Other Typing Tips

There are other important things to learn about your keyboard.

Find the SHIFT, ENTER and SPACE BAR on your keyboard. Do you know what the function of each of these is?

You use the SHIFT key when you want to capitalize a letter you are typing. For example, if you press and hold the shift key as you hit the letter “a” you would type a capital “A.”Try typing some capital and some lowercase letters.

You use the ENTER key when you want to move the cursor to the next line.

Finally, you use the SPACE BAR key anytime you want to make a space between the words you are typing.